Create your class
Choose a 4- or 8-quarter format, create teams and share private access with your students.
MARKUP MARKETS FOR EDUCATORS
A business simulation built for the classroom.
Turn business theory into competitive decisions. Student teams manage companies inside the same evolving market while you control the pace, review their reasoning and turn every quarter into a classroom discussion.
Free to use
No student license fees
Browser based
4 or 8 quarters
MMAcademic Mode
Live class
MKTG 201 · FALL TERM
Due 18:00
Quarter 2 decisions
6Teams
3Submitted
2In progress
1Not started
A
Atlas AudioSubmitted · 17:12
SubmittedN
NorthstarAutosaved 1 min ago
In progressS
Signal LabsNo decisions entered
Not startedFROM ZERO TO CLASSROOM IN MINUTES
Use the simulation without rebuilding your course around it.
No installation, purchasing process or lengthy instructor onboarding. Create a class, let students learn the environment in practice, then move into official competition when you are ready.
Start with practice
Students complete a disposable round so interface learning does not interfere with assessed performance.
Compete and debrief
Process the market, review outcomes with the class and connect student reasoning to what actually happened.
PRACTICE BEFORE PERFORMANCE
Let students learn the simulation before the results count.
A new interface should not be the hardest part of a business simulation. Academic Mode lets you begin with a complete disposable Practice Round, discuss what happened, then reset every team cleanly before official Quarter 1.
- Complete decision cycle before assessment
- Practice results available for debrief
- Clean reset before official competition
- Same starting conditions for every team
Practice RoundDisposable
1
Student decisionsPrice · product · promotion · production
Complete2
Process resultsTeams see the consequences of their choices
Ready3
Class debriefDiscuss trade-offs, surprises and market response
Next↻
Reset to official Q1Practice decisions and results are discarded
INSTRUCTOR CONTROL
Know what the whole class is doing without chasing teams.
Academic Mode is designed around the instructor's workflow, not just the student's game screen.
Submission state
See Not Started, In Progress, Submitted and Late teams at a glance.
Deadlines and pacing
Open and close decision windows, set deadlines and move on when the class is ready.
Reopen mistakes
Allow corrections when appropriate while preserving a decision and activity history.
Control result release
Process a quarter first and decide when students should see the result.
Autosaved work
Distinguish a team that has not begun from one actively working through decisions.
Export records
Use PDF, XLSX and CSV records for assessment, review and post-simulation analysis.
PRINTABLE REPORTS & ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE
The quarter ends. The teaching material does not.
Markup Markets can turn each processed quarter into printable records that students and instructors can use for debriefing, assessment and reflection. These are actual Quarter 1 examples generated by the simulation.
PRIVATE COMPANY REPORT · 2 PAGES
Give each team a record of its own decisions and outcomes.
The private report combines financial performance, market position, submitted decisions, product strategy, manufacturing and quality, segment performance, customer experience, break-even analysis and decision analysis in one A4 document.
View actual PDF
Example: Nectar Audio · Quarter 1
PUBLIC MARKET REPORT · 1 PAGE
Discuss the market without exposing every private signal.
The public report gives the class a shared view of potential customers, units sold, conversion, supply shortfall, market rankings and customer reviews while deliberately withholding exact segment population and quarter-to-quarter shifts.
View actual PDF
Example: Full six-company market · Quarter 1
WHY THIS MATTERS IN CLASS
One result can support three different conversations.
Team reflection — What did we decide, and what happened?
Instructor assessment — Was the reasoning coherent even when the outcome was poor?
Class debrief — How did competing strategies reshape the same market?
TEACH FROM WHAT STUDENTS ACTUALLY DID
Turn every market result into a discussion.
Winning the simulation is not the only learning outcome. Instructor analytics, presentation views, decision history and management rationale make student choices discussable.
Why did the volume leader not generate the highest profit?
Which team matched its product best to its target segment?
Did extra advertising create enough demand to justify the cost?
Who changed strategy when the evidence contradicted their assumptions?
Quarter debriefInstructor view
TeamProfitability
Discussion promptAtlas sold fewer units than Northstar but generated 35% more profit. What explains the difference?
ONE MARKET. CONNECTED BUSINESS DISCIPLINES.
Students do not just read these concepts. They make decisions with them.
Segmentation & targeting
Identify meaningful customer differences and decide which segments deserve attention.
Positioning
Build a coherent relationship between product, customer, price and brand.
Pricing
Balance margin, demand, market share and competitive response.
Marketing
Allocate advertising resources and evaluate whether spending creates enough demand.
Forecasting
Estimate demand under uncertainty and translate expectations into operational choices.
Production & inventory
Experience the cost of both stockouts and excess inventory.
Market research
Decide when more information is worth purchasing and how much confidence to place in it.
Financial thinking
Connect revenue, cost, investment and profitability rather than optimizing one metric.
Strategic adaptation
Revise strategy when outcomes and competitor behavior challenge prior assumptions.
DESIGNED TO FIT YOUR COURSE
Use it for one session, a module or a semester project.
The instructor controls the pace. Markup Markets is strongest in marketing and introductory business courses, but the same competitive market can support several teaching formats.
Teaching formatSuggested use
90-minute sessionPractice + accelerated 4-quarter experience
4-week moduleApproximately one competitive quarter per week
8-week moduleFull 8-quarter simulation with debriefs
Semester project8 quarters + rationale, presentation and reflection
INSTRUCTOR GUIDE
Plan the first class before you create it.
The printable guide walks through classroom setup, learning objectives, the Practice Round, instructor controls, debriefing, teaching formats, assessment, reports, troubleshooting, privacy and a one-page quick checklist.
- 8-page classroom guide for Academic Mode
- 90-minute, 4-week, 8-week and semester formats
- Assessment rubric and printable-report examples
- Quick instructor checklist for running a live class
SIMULATION METHODOLOGY
Designed to reward coherent strategy, not a single exploit.
A classroom simulation is useful only if reasonable strategies create meaningful trade-offs. Markup Markets is tested across deterministic computer-run markets and deliberately extreme strategies to identify unstable mechanics and obvious exploits.
Multiple strategic AI archetypes
2, 4, 6, 8 and 10-company markets
4-quarter and 8-quarter formats
Extreme pricing, production, advertising and research tests
Read the simulation methodology →
10,000+development simulation runs
5customer groups represented
2–10companies tested in competitive fields
4 + 8quarter structures validated
WHY MARKUP MARKETS?
Low-friction enough to try before you ask students to use it.
| Classroom requirement | Markup Markets | Typical commercial workflow |
|---|---|---|
| Student cost | Free | Often licensed per student or team |
| Instructor evaluation | Immediate demo | May require sales or demo process |
| Installation | None | Varies |
| Practice round | Built in | Varies |
| Instructor controls | Included | Usually included |
| Reports & exports | PDF / XLSX / CSV | Usually included |
BEFORE YOU USE IT WITH STUDENTS
Questions educators usually ask first.
Markup Markets is actively being developed and is currently seeking feedback from educators and early classroom users. We would rather make that clear than pretend to be a decades-old institutional product.
Ask us a question →Is Markup Markets really free?
Yes. There are currently no student license fees or institutional purchasing requirements.
Can I evaluate it before creating a class?
Yes. The populated instructor demo exists specifically so educators can explore Academic Mode before involving students.
Do students install anything?
No. Markup Markets runs in a modern web browser.
Can students work in teams?
Yes. Academic Mode supports multiple students per company, with 2–10 competing companies in a class.
Can I control when results are released?
Yes. Decision submission, quarter processing and result release are separate instructor-controlled stages.
Can I export class information?
Yes. Academic reporting supports downloadable records including PDF and spreadsheet-compatible exports.
EARLY EDUCATOR PROGRAM
Help shape Markup Markets before broader classroom adoption.
We are looking for marketing, business and strategy educators willing to explore the simulation and tell us one thing: what would prevent you from using this in your course?
PUT YOUR STUDENTS IN THE MARKET